👋 GOOD MORNING — Happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend.

Can you believe it, college football starts this week, and it’s coming out of the gate strong, as we have a ranked Big 12 matchup: Iowa State (No. 22) and Kansas State (No. 17) meet on Saturday morning in Dublin, Ireland (9 am, ESPN).

It’s the only game with any ranked teams until next Thursday, when Boise State (No. 25) faces South Florida in Tampa. As a proud Iowa State alum, I sure hope you tune in!

The Cyclones and Wildcats are an incredible appetizer for the main event one week later, when Texas (No. 1) and Ohio State (No. 3) face off in Columbus. College football is bringing the heat early!

Let’s make it a good week. On to the show!

— Patrick Brown, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

Let’s get this out of the way, first: Cardinals starters did not play in Saturday’s 27-7 loss to the Broncos in Denver.

Even so, that was pretty ugly.

Arizona never led, and punted on every single position except for its second drive of the game, when Jacoby Brissett found Simi Fehoko for a 16-yard touchdown. That evened the score at seven at the time, but the 11-play, 67-yard drive was the best the Cardinals would muster the rest of the game.

After that, their longest drive was a whopping 19 yards.

Woof.

Again, I cannot stress enough how little stock should be put into preseason football. If that were the case, then you might as well start placing Super Bowl bets on the Bears, while writing the Bills off.

Yeah, that’s not going to happen.

But hey, there were still some things to take away from the Cardinals’ snooze-fest against the Broncos on Saturday, so let’s dive in.

Arizona’s preseason opener left much to be desired from a turnover perspective, as the Cardinals turned the ball over three times, including an opening kickoff fumble and a red zone interception. One positive from the loss to Denver was ball security, as neither the offense nor special teams units turned the ball over. Granted, the offense didn’t have much time to give it away considering it ran just 47 plays, but still, no turnovers!

On top of it, the Cardinals defense snagged the only turnover of the game by either team, as Elijah Jones forced a fumble following a Broncos completion, which was recovered by Vi Jones. So hey, that’s a positive!

Brissett’s 16-yard touchdown toss was the only score for the Cardinals, and the 32-year-old quarterback finished the day 6-of-8 for 57 yards and one touchdown while also adding one run for two yards. He finished with a QB rating of 133.9, and looked comfortable directing the offense during his limited action on Saturday.

Clayton Tune was 13-of-20 for 56 yards, and added one rush for five yards while getting sacked twice, but he didn’t throw an interception! It sure looks like Brissett will be backing up Kyler Murray, though.

The Cardinals managed just 36 yards on the ground just a week after putting up only 92 against the Chiefs. Is it time to be concerned about Arizona’s rushing attack? Probably not, given the aforementioned preseason callouts, but even without starters in the game you’d like to see more than a paltry 36 yards on 17 attempts.

The longest run by any Cardinals player on Saturday was ::checks notes:: six yards. SIX. YARDS.

Yeah. That’s just not going to get it done.

My Take: Listen, I’m really not being critical, I swear, and I think if you watched Saturday’s game there’s a good chance you agree with these. There really wasn’t much else to call out, and the Cardinals have one more preseason game — next week at home against the Raiders — before kicking off their regular season in New Orleans on Sept. 7.

Enjoy one last weekend of meaningless football before the real action starts!

Perdomo Pushes Back: Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo sent a message after yesterday’s 6-5 loss to the Rockies — Arizona’s third straight loss to the worst team in baseball — hitting back against recent reports indicating internal frustration over superstar Ketel Marte’s time-off requests. A flurry of trade speculation has followed, but Perdomo had some blunt words for critics yesterday, as reported by AZCentral.com’s José M. Romero:

“I want to get something clear about my teammate. I’m tired of this. It’s going to be for all reporters and all the writers. This is the second time something came out for Marte … Please, please, you guys have to stop, you know what I mean?”

The D-backs kick off a six-game home stand tonight, beginning with the Guardians at 6:40 pm.

Weekend Split: The Mercury went 1-1 in two close games this weekend, falling to Las Vegas 86-83 on Friday before bouncing back with an 85-82 win over the Storm in Seattle yesterday. The win snapped a two-game losing streak, and kicked off Phoenix’s three-game road trip with a win it desperately needed.

The Mercury are back in action tomorrow at Golden State (7 pm) before closing out their road trip in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Piercing Equalizer: Rising FC earned a much-needed 1-1 draw in Tampa on Saturday, thanks to youngster Pierce Rizzo’s goal. The 18-year-old became the youngest goal-scorer in Rising history with the tally, and the draw helped keep Phoenix afloat in the USL postseason chase.

Rising FC occupies the eighth-and-final playoff spot in the USL Western Conference table, just one point ahead of ninth place Colorado Springs.

Johnny had thoughts

Monday morning, you arrived too soon.